Natural History

Erect-Crested Penguin – Lance Richdale – 1950

This is an offprint from the “The Emu” the then official organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologist’s Union.

The point of this item is that since 1940 the population of this species of Penguin has been in decline and is now categorised as endangered. They nest on the Bounty and Antipodes Islands. Previously on the Auckland, Campbell etc Islands and the Otago Peninsula but no longer. At the time of writing the report Richdale was probably observing the last Otago nesters …

Typical offprint faded card covers, 18 pages with quite a few images from photographs of the beautifully crested penguins. Maybe there are some clues in here as to what will soon lead to further reductions in breeding.

Lance Richdale was a big individual in the bird world – he was a Fulbright Fellow at Cornell and a Nuffield Fellow in his field – later in life he spent time at the Zoological Society in London. Author of the Sexual Behavior of Penguins.

Erect-Crested doing it tough in the far reaches of the Southern Ocean.

$20.00

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Antique Drum Microscope [Steward’s Portable Botanical Compound Microscope] c1870’s

A very nice cased English drum or field microscope. We have identified this exact type including accessories in the J.H. Steward Catalogue for 1871 so we can date it pretty well – see image of catalogue page with full description.

Original mahogany case with internal compartments circa 21cm x 8cm x 7cm. It has a crack in the lid of no structural consequence. Overall, a lovely patina superior to the usual pine equivalents.

Microscope in good condition with original eyepiece, three numbered objectives – instructions claim to give maximum magnification of 10,000 times.

Also provided is a brass box with a glass bottom usually for aquatic objects also crystals, salts etc. An insect box for small live insects. Five [would have been six] named paper covered prepared slides original to the set.

Extra special, almost unheard of, we still have the original “printed directions” with schematic of the microscope and accessories. Put back together by someone else with Sellotape

A super example of this upmarket drum style brass microscope.

Steward’s Catalogue goes on … “For Utility, Portability, and Cheapness, this Instrument is not equalled; and to convey some idea of its power, a Microscopic Photograph of the “Trial of Pickwick”, containing upwards 9,000 letters, and occupying the space of a pin’s head, when placed under this Instrument every word can be rad with the greatest ease”

1870’s Quality identified drum microscope with original accessories and printed directions.

$360.00

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Siluria – The History of the Oldest Known Rocks Containing Organic Remains; with a Brief Sketch of the Distribution of Gold Over the Earth – Sir Roderick Impey Murchison – First Edition 1854

A very good copy of the first edition of this most important scientific work, published by John Murray, London in 1854.

Thick Royal Octavo, bound in full leather, separate green leather title label, gilt decorations to compartments on the spine. Marbled end papers with the marbling continuing to the page edges, boards with decorative edge gilding to front, back and edge. 523 pages after preliminaries, followed by 37 lithographed plates of the principal Silurian fossils, with descriptive letterpress, folding world map at page 475. Separate folding Geological Map of the Silurian Rocks in pocket at rear.

The coloured folding map (53cm by 43cm) published under Murray drawn by J.W. Lowry and lithographed by Vincent Brooks is a first edition dated 1853 of the Geological Map of the Silurian Rocks and overlying formations as developed in Wales and the Adjacent Parts of England, chiefly prepared for the Geological Survey of Great Britain. It is in very good condition, cloth backed likely at the time of binding.

The plates are well executed, many by James De Carle Sowerby (1787-1872) eldest son of the great James Sowerby and founder of the Royal Botanical Society.

Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871) was an incredible individual. Scottish born, born into a wealthy, and was sent to Durham for schooling at the age of 7, after the death of his father. He joined the military and at 16 saw action in the Peninsula War. In 1818 he met Sir Humphrey Davy who persuaded him to pursue science. He joined the Royal Geological Society … his colleagues included, William Buckland, Charles Lyell and Darwin. He worked with Lyell on the geology of the Alps. In the 1830’s he did much research in and around the England Wales border and through that established the Silurian system and then went on to categorise the Devonian and Permian systems.

In 1845 Murchison new several Cornish miners who were off to Australia to explore for gold. They sent back samples … so Murchison new of the discovery of gold in Australia before Edward Hargraves.

He won many distinguished awards including the Royal Society Copley Medal, the Geological Society Wollaston Medal, and the Edinburgh Brisbane Medal (Another Australian connection). Also, many overseas awards. He was President of the Royal Geographical Society on four separate occasions, importantly he was one of the founders in 1830.

A crater on the Moon is named after him as well as geographical features in Greenland, USA, Canada, Antarctica, Uganda. In Australia the Murchison River with its tributaries named, Roderick and Impey.

Murchison and Siluria – First Edition Cornerstone Geology from distinguished author Murchison.

$690.00

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My Tropic Isle (Dunk Island) – E.J. Banfield – 1913

Published London in 1913 by Fisher Unwin a third impression.

Thick octavo, 315 pages, illustrated. A little foxing and flecking to rear cover otherwise a quite satisfactory copy priced accordingly. With the preferred pictorial cover – more often found plain bound.

Much of the contents of “My Tropic Isle” were first published in the “North Queensland Register” Banfield acknowledged the help of Charles Hedley of the Australian Museum Sydney, Douglas Ogilby of Brisbane and Jukes-Browne of Torquay (the nephew of Joseph Beete Jukes).

Scarce in pictorial binding – Banfield’s House amongst the palms.

$50.00

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Confessions of a Beachcomber – E.J. Banfield – 1910

Published London 1910 Second Impression of the first edition of this Queensland classic – title continues.. “Scenes and Incidents in the Career of An Unprofessional Beachcomber in Tropical Queensland”.

Published by Fisher Unwin, London. Thick octavo, 336 pages, illustrated with map and 51 plates. Some wear to the striking pictorial red themed cover, bumps etc. Internally some foxing especially near ends – still a handy copy of this desired edition and priced accordingly.

Banfield an early confession of a Dunk Island one of the world’s most tranquil places.

$80.00

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Rare Image of Australia’s Rarest Bird – Rawnsley’s Satin Bower Bird [Ptilonorhynchus Rawnsleyi] – Silvester Diggles – c1870

Rare original hand-coloured image lithographed on stone by Queensland naturalist Silvester Diggles. Highlighted with gum Arabic. Published as part of his magnificent work “The Ornithology of Australia” between 1866 and 1870 in twenty-one parts by Pugh of Brisbane, in a very limited edition. By the time part sixteen was published there were only ninety-two subscribers. The original plates were executed by Diggles and his niece, Rowena Birkett.

The bird specimen from which this lithograph was derived was found by H.C. Rawnsley in the scrub behind his house in Witton [Indooroopilly] on the Brisbane River in Julu 1867. Diggles dedicated and named the bird after him. The narrative that accompanies the plate goes on and is of historical interest. Diggles states that the strong resemblance in the bird’s colouring to the Satin Bower bird and the Regent Bower bird may lead to the suspicion of it being a hybrid. However, he refers to the explorer A.C. Gregory, who inspected the bird and confirmed that he had seen the very same species in Northern Queensland … the narrative goes into detail regarding Gregory’s testimony. However, we now know that the bird was a hybrid after all – the only other examples of a similar occurrence are quite recent … in the last twenty year. We believe though only three such occurrences have been identified to date.

The work measures 38cm by 27cm, good strong hand colouring clean and undamaged. A very scarce item.

About Silvester Diggles

Silvester Diggles (1817-1880) artist and musician born in Liverpool, England. He came to Australia in 1853 settling in Brisbane where he taught music and drawing. Diggles was a founder of the Brisbane Choral Society in 1859 and the Philharmonic Society in 1861 known as “the father of music in Brisbane”. Diggles was also a founder of the Queensland Philosophical Society and helped establish the Museum. His greatest work was The Ornithology of Australia. It nearly sent him broke. His health deteriorated worry about finances being a factor. He died at Kangaroo Point in 1880.

Price $590.00 unframed
An opportunity to own a Silvester Diggles lithograph of an exceedingly rare bird indeed.

$590.00

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Erect-Crested Penguin – Lance Richdale – 1950

Antique Drum Microscope [Steward’s Portable Botanical Compound Microscope] c1870’s

Siluria – The History of the Oldest Known Rocks Containing Organic Remains; with a Brief Sketch of the Distribution of Gold Over the Earth – Sir Roderick Impey Murchison – First Edition 1854

My Tropic Isle (Dunk Island) – E.J. Banfield – 1913

Confessions of a Beachcomber – E.J. Banfield – 1910

Rare Image of Australia’s Rarest Bird – Rawnsley’s Satin Bower Bird [Ptilonorhynchus Rawnsleyi] – Silvester Diggles – c1870

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